Inside Unmanned Systems

AUG-SEP 2018

Inside Unmanned Systems provides actionable business intelligence to decision-makers and influencers operating within the global UAS community. Features include analysis of key technologies, policy/regulatory developments and new product design.

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12 August/September 2018 unmanned systems
inside
expensive modifications when final
airworthiness standards come out.
That's a serious investment show-
ing a serious commitment to the
commercial market by three large
aerospace companies that have been
hesitant about commercial UAS in
the past.
STRATEGIC CHOICES
The General Atomics and Elbit
airframe choices represent the tra-
ditional approach to UAS BLOS
operations. These are large aircraft
with big payloads and long range.
The MQ -9 ha s a 4,800 -pound
payload with 40 hours of fuel on-
board. The Hermes 900 can carry a
1,000-pound payload for 36 hours.
Both are designed to operate from
runways at large fixed sites, using
their long range, high capacity satel-
lite communication links and large
payloads to shuttle out to a job site
and stay there for a long time. The
U.S. and Israeli Air Forces are mas-
ters at this type of BLOS operation.
They cut costs by centralizing main-
tenance and launch/recovery op-
erations at a handful of bases while
employing consolidated pools of air-
crew to f ly the aircraft remotely from
thousands of miles away. Instead of
having to station aircraft, mainte-
nance crews and pilots within a few
hours of their targets as they must do
bases, ScanEagles can use their
innovative Ma rk I V pneumatic
launcher to f ly from small f ields
and recover by snagging a wingtip
on a wire held by their SkyHook re-
covery system. The ScanEagle was
originally designed for tuna fishing
and can operate easily from even
small f ishing vessels. A football
f ield-sized operating area would
be a luxury for the ScanEagle. This
kind of mobility comes at a price
and the ScanEagle3 can only car-
r y a 20-pound payload for about
18 hours. Boeing is betting that
having crews on the ground near
their customers will make all the
difference—and they may be cor-
rec t . L a rge consolidated ba ses
w ith drones f ly ing hundreds of
miles to their targets work well
for Air Force operations because
airmen are used to dealing w ith
aircraft f lying from multiple bases
and meeting in the air over a tar-
get area. These operations were a
General Overview by James Poss, Maj Gen (RET) USAF
THAT'S A SERIOUS INVESTMENT SHOWING A SERIOUS COMMITMENT TO
THE COMMERCIAL MARKET BY THREE LARGE AEROSPACE COMPANIES THAT HAVE
BEEN HESITANT ABOUT COMMERCIAL UAS IN THE PAST.
for manned aircraft, American and
Israeli drone commanders simply
keep more drones in transit to cover
distant targets for weeks. Keeping an
F-16 constantly over a target three
hours from its base would take an en-
tire 24 aircraft squadron with more
than 40 pilots. An MQ-9 or Hermes
900 unit could do it with two aircraft
and seven pilots. General Atomics or
Elbit could probably cover the entire
continental United States with three
or four bases using this methodology.
Flight hour costs with this approach
would be low and it might be best
to sell drone support by the hour, as
drones would probably support sev-
eral customers during each cycle.
Boeing took a different approach
with the ScanEagle3. Rather than
operating from a few centralized
Photo courtesy of Elbit Systems.
The Hermes 900 StarLiner
was introduced at Farborourgh by
Elbit Systems.